KARTI P.CHIDAMBARAM Vs. REGIONAL PASSPORT OFFICER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The present Writ Petition has been filed for the issuance of a Writ of Certiorarified Mandamus, to call for the records of the Letter dtd. 8/4/2021 having Ref.No.File No.MA1072894834920 and 24/8/2021 having Ref.No.File.No. 2100012_CRM_MAS (MA1072894834920) issued by the respondent and quash the same and consequently direct the respondent to re-issue a passport with additional pages valid for a period of 10 years from the date of issuance.

(2.) The petitioner has applied for an additional booklet since the pages in his passport got exhausted. According to the respondent, as per new Regulations of International Civil Aviation Organization, the validity of a passport cannot be manually extended. Reissue involves issue of a fresh booklet whereas renewal was earlier done on an existing passport. Since May, 2010, both reissue and renewal involve issue of a new passport booklet. There is no mechanism available by which additional pages can be added to existing booklet. In case of exhaustion of pages, new booklet with new passport number is issued. In such scenario, validity of new passport has to be determined independently without considering the validity of old passport.

(3.) The respondent would rely on Sec 6(2) (f) of Passports Act,1967 (hereinafter called The Act) read with Notification G.S.R.570 (E). dtd. 25/8/1993. According to them when a criminal case is pending, the notification will continue to apply and the authorities under the Act are empowered to shorten the validity of the Passport to one year. The judgment relied on by the petitioner in W.P.No. 361 of 2014 of Bombay High Court dtd. 29/4/2021 will not apply to his case and on the other hand the judgment of Division Bench of Delhi High Court in Prashant Bhushan Vs Union of India and others in W.P.(C)No.1524/2015 dtd. 7/1/2016 will only apply. As observed by the Delhi High Court "merely because such an order of the court is silent about the time limit, the applicant cannot claim a right for issuance of passport for full validity period"